Ajay Goel, Ph.D., AGAF

Location
Biomedical Research Center
Monrovia, CA 91016
Duarte Cancer Center
Duarte, CA 91010
Education & Experience
1991-1996, Ph.D., Biophysics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
1988-1990, M.S. (Honors), Biophysics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
1985-1988, B.S. (Honors), Biophysics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
1998-present, AGAF - Fellow, American Gastroenterology Association
2020-present, Associate Director of Basic Science, Comprehensive Cancer Center, City of Hope, Duarte, CA
2019-present, Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics, City of Hope, Duarte, CA
2016-2019, Michael A Ramsay Chair in Cancer Genomics, Baylor Scott & White Healthcare
2015-2019, Adjunct Distinguished Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences at Curtin University, Perth, Australia
2015-2019, Adjunct Professor, Baylor University Institute for Biomedical Studies, Baylor University, Waco, TX
2014-2019, Director, Center for Translational Genomics and Oncology, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute and Charles A Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
2012-2019, Director, Center for Gastrointestinal Research, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute and Charles A Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
2005-2019, Investigator/Professor, Baylor Research Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
2011-2014, Director, Epigenetics and Cancer Prevention Research, Baylor Research Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
2003-2005, Associate Investigator (equivalent to Associate Professor), Baylor Research Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
2001-2003, Assistant Project Scientist, Department of Medicine and Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California
Awards & Memberships
Awards
- 2023 Received AACR-Lustgarten Foundation’s Award
- 2023 Elected Member, Publications Committee, American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)
- 2023 PLoS One, Editorial Board, Long Service Award
- 2023 Elected Member, Research Impact Fund (RIF) Committee of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong
- 2022 Distinguished National Alum Award, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
- 2022, Top cited article in 2021, Scientific Reports
- 2021, Elected nominating committee member, American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)
- 2020, Board of directors nominee, Gastric Cancer Foundation
- 2020, Erudite Scholar award, Kerala State Higher Education Council, Government of India
- 2020, R. Robert & Sally Funderberg Research award, AGA
- 2019, Ludwig Cancer Research-Hilton Foundation Partnership award
- 2019, Top cited article in 2018, Scientific Reports
- 2019, Best of the Journal award, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for the Top cited article in 2017, Clinical Cancer Research
- 2018, Best poster award, annual Baylor-TGen alliance meeting
- 2018, Podium presentation, AACR 2018 annual meeting
- 2018, Top Reviewer award, Gastroenterology journal
- 2018, Four oral presentations, including at AGA's Plenary Topic Forum, Digestive Disease Week (DDW)
- 2018, Poster of Distinction award, AGA
- 2018, Selected for oral presentation, AACR 2018 annual meeting
- 2017, National Cancer Institute Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium U01 grant award
- 2017, Three oral presentations, AGA's Plenary Topic Forum, DDW
- 2017, Poster of Distinction award, AGA
- 2016, Selected into the AACR Basic Cancer Research Fellowships Scientific Review Award Committee
- 2016, Poster of Distinction award, AGA
- 2016, Michael A. Ramsay Chair in Translational Genomics and Oncology
- 2016, Poster of Distinction awards at the annual AGA/DDW meetings in San Diego, CA
Memberships
- 2022-present, Member, European Society of Medical Oncology
- 2022-present, Member, American Pancreatic Association
- 2018-present, Member, Early Detection Research Network
- 2017-present, Member, Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium
- 2017-present, Member, American Society of Clinical Oncology
- 2017-present, Member, Cancer Epigenetics Society
- 1998-present, Member, American Association for Cancer Research
- 1998-present, Member and Fellow, American Gastroenterology Association
- 1993-present, Member, Electron Microscopy Society of India
- 1989-present, Lifetime Member, Society of Biophysicists of India
- 1989-present, Member, Association of Medical Physicists of India
- 1994-1996, Member, Microscopy Society of America
In the News
- Turmeric Benefits for Women: Why Experts Call It a “Complete Well-Being Tonic” for Your Health
- Turmeric Pain Relief Tea Cured My Chronic Knee Pain — And Greatly Improved My Life!
- Nature’s answers to cancer
- A liquid biopsy exosomal microRNA panel for predicting recurrence following surgery in patients with PDAC
- Dr. Ajay Goel on colon cancer screenings - AACR
- Transcriptomic profiling identifies a risk stratification signature
- Medical Moment: Foods to fight colorectal cancer
- Assessment of the diagnostic efficiency of a liquid biopsy assay for early detection of gastric cancer
- Curcumin for cancer, depression, pain relief & more by Dr. Ajay Goel & Cheryl Myers
- Natural botanicals for cancer & cancer prevention
- A cell free DNA methylation fingerprint for early detection of gastric cancer
- Curcumin and pancreatic cancer treatments
- Curcumin and colon cancer the science and the successes
- The Lustgarten Foundation Announces Extraordinary Year of Research Grants Fueling Bold and Innovative Pancreatic Cancer Research
- $4.5 Million Grant Boosts Prospects for Pancreatic Cancer Liquid Biopsy
- American Association for Cancer Research Recognizes 2022-2023 Research Grantees
- Liquid Biopsy Assay Can Predict CRC Recurrence Early
Publications
- Okuno K, Watanabe S, Hur H, Lee J, Park JO, Tokunaga M, Kinugasa Y and Goel A (2024). An exosome-based liquid biopsy signature for therapeutic response prediction to platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with metastatic gastric cancer. Clinical and Translational Medicine, (In Press).
- Mannucci A, Puzzono M, Goel A, Moeslein G, Balafas S, Di Serio MS, and Cavestro GM (2024). The Spigelman staging system and the risk of duodenal and papillary cancer in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Gastroenterology. (In Press). PMID: 38294150.
- Dai Q, Ye C, Irkliyenko I, Wang Y, Sun HL, Gao Y, Liu Y, Beadell A, García JP, Goel A and He C (2024). Ultrafast Bisulfite Sequencing for Efficient and Accurate 5 Methylcytosine Detection in DNA and RNA. Nature Biotechnology, (In Press). PMID: 38168991.
- Xu C, Jun E, Okugawa Y, Toiyama Y, Borazanci E, Bolton J, Taketomi A, Kim SC, Shang D, Von Hoff D, Zhang G and Goel A (2024). A circulating panel of circRNA biomarkers for the noninvasive and early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Gastroenterology, 166(1): 178-190. PMID: 37839499. PMCID: PMC10843014
This article was featured as the Cover Page highlight of the journal. - Mimura K, Ogata T, Roy S, Yuan YC, Yoshimoto Y, Yoshida D, Nakajima S, Sato H, Machida N, Yamada T, Watanabe Y, Tamaki T, Fujikawa H, Inokuchi Y, Yayase S, Hanayama H, Saze Z, Katoh H, Oshima T, Goel A, Nardin A, Suzuki Y and Kono K (2024). Combination of oligo-fractionated irradiation with nivolumab can induce immune modulation in gastric cancer. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 12(1): e008385. PMID: 38290769. PMCID: PMC10828861.
- Yasui K, Toshima T, Inada R, Umeda Y, Yano S, Tanioka H, Nyuya A, Fujiwara T, Yamada T, Naomoto Y, Goel A*, and Nagasaka T (2024). Circulating cell-free DNA methylation patterns as noninvasive biomarkers for colorectal cancer treatment efficacy without referencing primary site mutation profiles. Molecular Cancer, 23(1); 1. (*Co-corresponding author). PMID: 38172877. PMCID: PMC10762960.
- Zhu Z, Guo Y, Liu Y, Ding R, Huang Z, Yu W, Cui L, Du P, Goel A and Liu CY (2023). ELK4 promotes colorectal cancer progression by activating the neoangiogenic factor LRG1 in a noncanonical SP1/3-dependent manner—Advanced Sciences, 10(32); e2303378. PMID: 37786278. PMCID: PMC10646254.
- Liu X, Zhang L, Zhu B, Liu Y, Li L, Hou J, Qian M, Zheng N, Zeng Y, Chen C, Goel A, Wang X (2023). Role of GSDM family members in airway epithelial cells of lung diseases: a systematic and comprehensive transcriptomic analysis. Cell Biology and Toxicology, 2023 Dec;39(6):2743-2760 PMID: 37462807.
- Garcia-Etxebarria K, Etxart A, Barrero M, Nafria B, Segues-Merino NM, Romero-Garmendia I, Goel A, Franke A, D’Amato M and Bujanda L (2023). Genetic Variants as Predictors of the Success of Colorectal Cancer Treatments. Cancers, 15(19): PMID: 37835382. PMCID: PMC10571592.
- Okuno K, Tokunaga M, Von Hoff D, Kinugasa Y and Goel A (2023). Intratumoral Malasseziaglobosa levels predict survival and therapeutic response to adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Gastroenterology, 165(2): 502-504. PMID: 37119937. PMCID: PMC10405668.
- Okuno K, Pratama MY, Li J, Tokunaga M, Wang X, Kinugasa Y and Goel A (2023). Ginseng mediates its anticancer activity by inhibiting the expression of DNMTs and reactivating methylation-silenced genes in colorectal cancer. Carcinogenesis, 44(5):394-403 PMID: 37137336. PMCID: PMC10414140.
- Perez-Mayoral J, Gonzalez-Pons MM, Centeno-Girona H, Montes-Rodriguez IM, Soto_Salgado M, Suarez B, Rodriguez N, Colon G, Sevilla J, Jorge D, Llor X, Xicola RM, Toro D, Tous-Lopez L, Torres-Torres M, Reyes JS, Lopez-Acevedo N, Goel A, Rodriguez-Quilichini S and Cruz-Correa M (2023). Molecular and Sociodemographic Colorectal Cancer Disparities in Latinos Living in Puerto Rico. Genes, 14(4): 894. PMID: 37107652. PMCID: PMC10138302.
- Untergasser A, Hellemans J, Ruijter J, van den Hoff M, Pfaffl MW, Dragomir MP, Meira D, Dias S, Reis R, Ferracin M, Dias-Neto E, Marsh I, Kubista M, Fabbri M, Goel A, Slaby O, Knutsen E, Chen BQ, Negrini M, Mimori K, Pichler M, Papatriantafyllou M, Anfossi S, Schmittgen T, Huggett J, Bustin S, Vandesompele J, and Calin G (2023). Disclosing quantitative RT-PCR raw data during manuscript submission: a call for action. Molecular Oncology, 17(5): 713-717. PMID: 36916500. PMCID: PMC10158759.
- Miyazaki K, Xu C, Shimada M and Goel A (2023). Curcumin and Andrographis exhibit anti-tumor effects in colorectal cancer via activation of ferroptosis and dual suppression of glutathione peroxidase-4 and ferroptosis suppressor protein-1. Pharmaceuticals, 16(3): 383. PMID: 36986483. PMCID: PMC10055708.
- This article was featured as the Cover Page highlighted feature in this issue of the journal.
- Nishiwada S, Shimura T, Yamamura K, Nakagawa K, Nagai M, Nakamura K, Terai T, Yamada S, Fujii T, Kodera Y, Sho M and Goel A (2023). Clinical significance and functional role of adhesion G protein-coupled receptors in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. British Journal of Cancer, 128(2): 321-330. PMID: 36396823. PMCID: PMC9902480.
- Zhao Y, Peng F, Li W, Wang C, and Goel A (2023). A DNA Methylation-Based Epigenetic Signature for the Identification of Lymph Node Metastasis in T1 Colorectal Cancer. Annals of Surgery, 277(4): 655-663. PMID: 35837968. PMCID: PMC9840712.
- Phan XT, Nguyen VH, SU R, Li Y, Qing Y, Qin H, Cho H, Jiang L, Wu X, Chen J, Fakih M, Diamond DJ, Goel A and Melstrom L (2023). Targeting fat mass obesity-associated protein mitigates human colorectal cancer growth in vitro and in a murine model. Frontiers in Oncology, 13: 1087644. PMID: 36874096. PMCID: PMC9981948.
- Miyazaki K, Morine Y, Xu C, Nakasu C, Wada Y, Teraoku H, Yamada S, Saito Y, Ikemoto T, Shimada M and Goel A (2023). Curcumin-mediated resistance to Lenvatinib via EGFR signaling pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma. Cells, 12(4): 612. PMID: 36831279. PMCID: PMC9954241.
- Okuno K, Watanabe S, Roy S, Kanda M, Tokunaga M, Kodera Y, Kinugasa Y and Goel A (2023). A liquid biopsy signature for predicting early recurrence in patients with gastric cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 128(6); 1105-1116. PMID: 36631634. PMCID: PMC10006424.
- Cavestro GM, Mannucci A, Balaguer F, Hampel H, Kupfer SS, Repici A, Sartore-Bianchi A, Seppälä TT, Valentini V, Boland CR, Brand RE, Buffart T, Burke CA, Caccialanza R, Cannizzaro R, Cascinu S, Cercek A, Crosbie EJ, Danese S, Dekker E, Daca-Alvarez M, Deni F, Dominguez-Valentin M, Eng C, Goel A, Guillem JG, Houwen BBSL, Kahi C, Kalady MF, Kastrinos F, Kuhn F, Laghi L, Latchford A, Liska D, Lu KH, Lynch P, Malesci A, Mauri G, Meldolesi E, Møller P, Monahan KJ, Moslein G, Murphy CC, Nass K, Ng K, Oliani C, Papaleo E, Patel SG, Puzzono M, Remo A, Ricciardiello L, Ripamonti CI, Siena S, Singh SK, Stadler ZK, Stanich PP, Syngal S, Turi S, Urso ED, Valle L, Vanni VS, Vilar Sanchez E, Vitellaro M, Yurgelun MB, Zuppardo RA, Stoffel EM, on behalf of the Associazione Italiana Familiarità Ereditarietà Tumori, the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancers, the European Hereditary Tumor Group, and the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours (2023). Delphi initiative for early-onset colorectal cancer (DIRECt). International Management Guidelines. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 21(3); 581-603.e33. PMID: 36549470.
- Okuno K, Xu C, Pascual-Sabater S, Tokunaga M, Takayama T, Han H, Fillat C, Kinugasa Y and Goel A (2023). Andrographis reverses gemcitabine resistance through the regulation of ERBB3 and calcium signaling pathway in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Biomedicines, 11(1): 119. PMID: 36672630. PMCID: PMC9855441.
- Okuno K, Kandimalla R, Mendiola M, Balaguer F, Bujanda L, Fernandez-Martos C, Aparicio J, Feliu J, Tokunaga M, Kinugasa Y, Maurel J and Goel A (2023). A microRNA signature for risk-stratification and response prediction to FOLFOX-based adjuvant therapy in stage II and III colorectal cancer. Molecular Cancer, 22(1): 13. PMID: 36670412. PMCID: PMC9854096.
- Sahu D, Lin C and Goel A (2023). Transcriptomic profiling reveals an enhancer RNA signature for recurrence prediction in colorectal cancer. Genes, 14(1): 137. PMID: 36672877. PMCID: PMC9859145.
- Takahashi K, Shigeyasu K, Kondo Y, Gotoh K, Yano S, Umeda Y, Inokuchi T, Xu C, Yoshida K, Umeda H, Takahashi T, Takeda S, Yoshida R, Teraishi F, Kishimoto H, Mori Y, Noma K, Okugawa Y, Hiraoka S, Michiue H, Tazawa H, Matsushita O, Goel A and Fujiwara T (2023). RNA editing is a valuable biomarker for predicting carcinogenesis in ulcerative colitis. Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis, 17(5): 754-766. PMID: 36528792.
- Okada Y, Peng F, Perea J, Corchete L, Bujanda L, Li W and Goel A (2023). Genome-wide methylation profiling identifies a novel gene signature for patients with synchronous colorectal cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 128(1): 112-120. PMID: 36319845. PMCID: PMC9814149.